Join us in celebrating 40 years on Sunday June 20th.
This is the 40th year anniversary of the Free School and we will be having a celebration! BLOCK PARY! CAKE AUCTION:40 CAKES for 40 years...., BBQ, and AFTERPARTY! It's gonna rock....but we need your help to get the word out.
"Save our parks!" was the rallying cry as over 25 Free School students and staff marched from school to the capitol on March 3rd to protest the proposed closures of over 50 state parks and historic sites by Governor Paterson. The rally was a really amazing example of democracy in action as our kids marched with beautiful tree signs, first to the Governor's Mansion and then to the Capitol. Our presence added an incredible youthful energy to the gathering of people from all around the state, and two of our students, Mona and Ana, even spoke to the crowd about why they wanted the state parks to stay open. We met state legislators who are fighting to save the parks, and learned from a group of senior citizens from Harlem about a small state park in their neighborhood that was going to cut their programs for the elderly. The news of the governor's proposal was discussed at our Monday activities meeting that week and several students were saddened to hear the news and interested in finding ways to have their voices heard in the matter. We met to discuss the details of the Governor's plan that included the closure of Thacher Park, a longtime favorite destination for The Free School. Students wrote letters, and created a petition that was signed by over 175 people that week, and made plans to participate in the protest at the capitol. Teachers and students are eagerly waiting for the final state budget to be passed with hopes that it will include money to keep the parks open. Go online to the Parks and Trails New York website: www.ptny.org to stay informed and check out this youtube video of the rally:
The Albany City School District has closed schools for unused snow days. Please note the change to our calendar to reflect that there will be no school on Thursday 5/27, Friday 5/28, and Monday 5/31.
Come join us for the upcoming Spring Carnival, Saturday May 15th
3-5pm at the Free School!
The Spring Carnival is a chance for families and neighbors to come together for kid focused activities, information tables about local summer camps, and an art show of amazing creations from Free School students. Arts, crafts, cookie decorating station, trapeeze, face paint, projects, and more! Fun, fanfare, and refreshments, not to mention a great way to meet new people in the neighborhood! Spread the word!
**** This event will also highlight the opportunity to re-register for the 2010-2011 school year. All students presently enrolled are expected to be re-registered before June 1st so that we can process all paperwork in a timely fashion. In addition to updating paperwork for the 2010-2011 school year, we must also have all updates for changes of address and contact information. Tuition forms will be mailed home with your June invoice and are expected to be returned with your June payment for processing. Please come and re-register at the Spring carnival, although limited appointments for re-registering can also be made at the discretion of the Registrar, Megan.******
We are celebrating many things this year and Earth Day's 40th Anniversary is no exception. Please support us in celebrating our Earth this Thursday, April 22nd with a neighborhood clean-up in the morning followed by lunch in the Wilbur Street/Grand Street corner park (often called People's Park). After lunch, we will have a discussion and activities about Earth Day.
If you have lawn bags,work gloves, rakes, or garbage bags to contribute, it would be greatly appreciated! Hope to see you there!
We are sorry to announce that the Parent Forum, scheduled for this Thursday, February 11th, has been cancelled. Please join us for our next sheduled Parents' Forum on Wednesday, May 12th. We look forward to seeing yout all then!
The coldest part of winter has set in and it won't be long before this relatively snowless winter gives up some serious snow! Kids are eager to sled and play in that wintery whiteness and take on the challenge of Dead Man's Hill at Lincoln Park.
Until then, it's important that you all know some of the upcoming things happening at school this month.
SPIRIT WEEK - February 1st - 5th
Ya got spirit? What?
That's right, the interns have some crazy spirit they want to shake out of us all at school and what better time then NOW! This week is jammed packed with fun activities, like Pajama Day, Crazy Hair Day, and more. Need more information, be sure to grab Mia or Leonora for more questions!
Mid-Winter Break - SCHOOL NOT IN SESSION February 15 - 19th
Sweet Buns Cafe
Come on out Saturday February 6th for Sweet Buns...We Do Salty Too! OPen 8.30 - 11.30am at school, get your pastry on with Deirdre and Caroline for our ongoing efforts to help raise money for the Free School Kitchen Program and USCRI. Enjoy amazing food while the kids play on the jungle gym and cozy up on a cold winter's morning for coffee, tea, great conversation, and the best breakfast specials this side of the Mississippi!
A couple of weeks ago a group of brave Free Schoolers went out to Grafton for a winter snowshoe hike at Dyken Pond. The hike was lead by Dan Yacobellis, one of our Grafton Land caretakers and an educator at Dyken Pond, which is a beautiful environemntal center about 35 miles away. The hike was exciting as we walked across the frozen pond and discovered coyote tracks and explored around an abandonded beaver lodge. After walking across the pond we hiked through the woods in our snowshoes, and encontered more tracks and signs of winter hibernation. We ended our day by making a fire and enjoying our lunches by the warmth. Check out the Dyken Pond website: http://dykenpond.org/
Check out this link for a slideshow of photos from our trip:
Be sure to get a hard copy of our November Newsletter or check out the PDF right here on our website. There are lots of school updates and announcements, such as some of the following upcoming things to note:
SWEET BUNS CAFE...we do salty too!
That's right, the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each month, Deirdre and Caroline feature their specialty baked goods and treats right here at the Free School. From 8.30 - 11.30am, come sample our pumpkin bread, muffins, danish, croissants, eclairs and cream puffs, quiche, frittatas, pound cakes and of course or signature sweet buns. We also offer Saturday Specials and egg sandwiches to order. Vegan and Gluten options are often available (and if this is a need, please feel free to contact us in advance so we can assure options). Coffee, tea, and juice finish off what promises to be a friendly and scrumptious morning treat.
Proceeds benefit the Free School Kitchen Program and the Capital District Refugee Center, a local organization devoted to assisting individuals and families starting anew in our communities!
Our Winter Schedule is as follows --
November 21st
December 5th & 19th
January 23rd
Questions???? Contact Deirdre or Caroline 434-3072
We have begun to take orders for the 3rd Annual Parents' Construction Fund Apple Pie Sale. Each delicious homemade apple pie is just $14!!! Last year’s pie proceeds went towards replacing the downstairs windows and lights. This year, we have two pick up options:
1st round: Order Pies by Fri. Nov. 13, Pickup Mon-Tues, Nov. 16-17.
2nd round: Order Pies by Fri. Nov. 20, Pickup Tues-Wed., Nov. 24-25 (just in time for Thanksgiving!).
Sign up for a pie at School or email Corey McQuinn, Parents’ Construction Fund, at cmcquinn@nycap. rr.com.
Check out our November Newsletter by clicking on the link below. Thanks so much to our amazing art teacher Shelly for putting the newsletter together and to Ava, Autumn and the entire staff for helping out.
On Friday, October 30th, we will go apple picking at Samascott Orchards for the morning. With all of the excitement about Halloween, we love to get out of the building and enjoy all that NY has to offer in the fall. Please send in your child with $2 gas money for this trip. We will be back at lunch.
Apples will be used inthe kitchen, for projects, and will also go towards the Parents' Construction Fund's Annual Pie Sale that will happen in November. Keep an eye out for the flyer announcing the dates of the sale!
That's right, the Annual Halloween Parade is this Friday, October 30th starting at 1.30pm. Students, Staff, and Friends will walk the neighborhood to Trick or Treat all decked out in our scariest or most creative costumes. Please consider coming after lunch (anytime after 12.45pm) to help kids put on costumes and, of course, apply face paint. Artists are encouraged as no child deserves the face paint that some of us teachers sadly apply, although there are a few shining stars among us :)
Following the 1.30 Parade, we will return to school for the Halloween Monster Mash, our dance party extravaganza with indulgences in recently acquired candy and of course some savory or healthful snacks. We love donations of pretzels, chips, or fruit to help buffer the sugar side effects and all donations can be delivered to the kitchen on Friday.
Remember Parents and Guardians, children must bring their costumes in a bag and may not put on their costumes before lunch ends. Also, Halloween is our exception for candy and snacks, but students may not bring in candy or snacks on Monday.
Our latest adventure brought us to the famous Albany Pine Bush. The children ran through the sandy terrain asking questions all the way. The heavey clouds and overcast scene did not hold us back. We explored the trails and wove our way around for about 1 mile before the kids sat down in the sand and created sand castles and sand sculptures.
Later, after our lunch and outdoor exploration, we headed inside the discovery center where we watched a video, learned about the animals and insects in the Pine Bush and learned about the changing landscape of the sand dunes. Stay tuned for our next weekly adventure....
This next week we will go out to the land in Grafton. (Parents be warned- we will go on Thursday instead of our normal Friday trip!) Please be prepared to bring the same stuff... Car seat, warm coat and boots, and $2 for gas!
Hey everyone please check out our first newsletter of the year put together by our art teacher Shelly and several students at school. Just click on the link below to view a PDF version of the newsletter on your computer. Enjoy!!!
The Downstairs came back yesterday from our Annual (or not-so-annual) overnight to Rainbow Camp. We had an amazing time and chilly but good weather! We found salamanders, visited the Dinosaur Rock, too a no-flashlight Moonlight walk around Lake Elizabeth, played hours of Manhunt, ate smores by the campfire, and stayed up telling some of our favorite stories of all time. it was an amazing trip and we can't wait to go back!!!
There are some important events coming up. We will be distributing our first monthly Newsletter this week. be sure to grab a copy at school or access it as a pdf here on the website. Although we do not yet have a day set up for the Upstairs kids to swim, swimming is on Friday afternoons for Downstairs kids. Please be sure to send in your swimmer(s) with a quarter, a bathing suit, and a towel. We will swim until winter.
NO SCHOOL MONDAY, OCT. 12th: Indigenous People's Day
Our second Friday adventure brought all the upstairs kids to the Peace Pagoda to visit with Jun San.
We sang fun songs while the van trekked east towards the foot of the berkshires.
The day was perfect! We explored the Grafton land and when it was almost too cold, we were invited in to a beautiful lunch at the temple. We shared carrots and pumpkins ( all homegrown from the freeschool kitchen garden ) with Jun San and she shared stories of her latest Peace Walk.
We are excited to announce that Fridays are upstairs adventure days!!!! Our first Friday of the school year, we packed up the van, and headed to FIVE RiVERS where the kids tromped through the famous beaver path.
While hiking the path we spotted frogs, beautiful acorns (Mike Berry uses these for his math lessons! ), and a great blue heron. We stopped long enough at each new turn to really enjoy the crisp air and watch to see if the leaves where really ready to turn vibrant shades of yellow, red, and orange.
The kids enjoyed seeing the owl inside the center, but were more captivated by the dead garter snake that was found on the path. Everyone gathered to sing 'dear ones' and they had an inpromtu burial near its spotting! These kids are amazing curious people! It is always fun to spend time with th 3-5 year olds out in the world!
Hoping that everyone is well and enjoying the sudden cool air drifting into Albay as autumn settles in. It is the time of year that we start to explore and get out of Albany before the winter snow hits.
Although notes will go home regarding these announcements, we are tying to encourage people to utilize this website for information, updates, and announcements. New technology will allow us to more easily e-mail flyers home, regular blog posts will be updated, and newsletters will start to be distributed the first week of each month starting in October.
Yom Kippur -- No School
In observance of Yom Kippur, The Free School (and all Albany City Schools) will be closed on Monday, September 28th.
The 4th, 5th and 6th graders are back in full swing now that we are into our second week of the school year. We have SO many amazing classes that have started already, such as gymnastics, reading games, greek mythology and people's history...The kids have also been busy sewing and making toys, playing football at the park and organizing themselves as a new class. There are 9 students as of now and we are happy to be back together. Please keep your eyes out for weekly update and reminders.
Ok, so we manage to fill up every classroom we use to the brim and kids are getting used to sitting on tabletops! So what if we take up three lunch tables? Who's looking at the sign-up list after all 19 of our names take up the entire chalkboard anyway? This year's 1st-2nd-3rd Grade class is a big, boisterous, sweet group of kids who have taken the Downstairs by storm. Suprisingly, this adorable groups of kids is not all that loud and although energetic seems to navigate the Downstairs with grace considering their numbers. Just wait until we go bowling tromorrow!!!!
The downstairs kids have been really into the new Animal Class that we started after break. We are working our way throught the alphabet, picking what we think is the most interesting. So far we have gotten through ARMADILLO and BISON. So, our fun animal fact is... The nine banded armadillo gives birth to four genetically identical quadruplets in each litter! And who knows what we will learn about next? Will it be the Capybara or the Chupacabra?
The upstairs world is full of exciting experiences. This week we have gone sledding at the basketball park, played in an igloo found at the top of the hill and danced to afro-beats to keep ourselves warm in this freezing cold weather. Our kids are painting beautiful picutres and learning about the letter "P" in all sorts of fun ways ( creating P's with our own bodies and finding words that start with P...Planet! Pluto!). Since our students are such imaginative story tellers, we have just begun writing down stories in their own words....Stay tuned for some of our kids stories!!!! Every day is an exciting one! We look forward to sharing our many adventures with you!
We are blessed to have so many people sharing their own gifts and talents with our students. Thank you volunteers for sharing your music : Deb and Celia (our traveling musical friend ), and for sharing your artistic time- Sonia, Victoria and Stacey.
Our second Friday adventure brought all the upstairs kids to the Peace Pagoda to visit with Jun San. 
We are excited to announce that Fridays are upstairs adventure days!!!! Our first Friday of the school year, we packed up the van, and headed to FIVE RiVERS where the kids tromped through the famous beaver path. 
Friday December 14th the 7th and 8th grade class at The Free School will be hosting the Fish Fry and Falafel dinner. 
Last nights fabric show at The Free School was really great!
